“Union Alley Showcase” shines on BCTMA
Published 12:30 am Wednesday, January 25, 2012
You might hear them on a Thursday night, their music wafting from the back of the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center. You may see them come spring, on a Saturday morning, providing the soundtrack to a Saturday Market shopping trip on Stewart Parkway. And now you can hear the strains of the traditional, sung and played by hometown folks anytime you like.
This Friday, the Beaufort County Traditional Music Association will release “Union Alley Showcase,” a 14-song CD that sells for $6 and features music made by BCTMA members. BCTMA is a grassroots effort started in 2008 to promote the performance and enjoyment of traditional music in the community.
On the new CD, Tranter’s Creek Resort and Campground owner Chris Furlough — on fiddle, guitar and vocals — teams up with Carolina Still frontman Justin Casey — playing bass and banjo — on a cover of “Dublin Minstrel,” a traditional Irish folk tune written as a tribute to Luke Kelly, folk singer and founder of The Dubliners, by one of Ireland’s most famous balladeers, Paddy Reilly.
Also featured are Sidney and Delores Moore, accompanied by their daughter, Wendy Wallace, and other BCTMA members, with a version of “Rough and Rocky,” a traditional bluegrass and old-time song written in the early 1900s and previously recorded by Ricky Skaggs and Emmy Lou Harris, among many others.
“The Past 40 Years” is a haunting original tune written by Justin Casey as a tribute to his parents, Emmett and Linda Casey. On it, Justin Casey provides guitar, banjo and lead vocals, harmonized by Teresa Pritchard.
Casey, owner of Awake Productions, recorded the 14 tracks at his recording studio, Still House Studio, one group at a time.
“We decided on the artists and the songs. Then they got their groups together and went out there individually,” said Linda Boyer, one the founding BCTMA members. “Justin did a great job producing it. It was a really great experience for everybody.”
“Union Alley Showcase” represents a departure from the BCTMA’s first CD, 2009’s “Waterfront Jam,” breaking with the “jam session” style that was recorded onstage at Beaufort County Community College.
The new CD will officially be released during the BCTMA’s membership meeting at the Union Alley Coffee House at 8 p.m. Friday. Thereafter, it may be found at the Union Alley Coffee House and all BCTMA performances.
BCTMA members play Thursday nights from 6:30 p.m. until 8: 30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Union Alley Coffee House in the back of the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center on Main Street, Washington. These events are open to the public with no admission fee.
“Everybody’s invited to come,” said Boyer.
For more information about the BCTMA, visit www.bctma.org.